Extinction Risk, Living Fossils, Asteroid vs Birds

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, you’ll learn about a new study shedding light on what species are most vulnerable to extinction from climate change, why species of living fossils take their time evolving, and a new theory about how the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also impacted birds.

Extinction Risk

“New study reveals insight into which animals are most vulnerable to extinction due to climate change.” University of Oxford. 2024.
“What is mass extinction and are we facing a sixth one?” by Tammana Begum. 2021. Updated 2023.
“Mass extinctions, their causes and consequences: an interview with Douglas H. Erwin and Shuzhong Shen.” by Shucheng Xie. 2023.
“Species and climate change.” IUCN. 2021.
“Humanity’s Fitting Place on the List of Mass Extinction Events.” by Sam Baker. 2018.

Living Fossils

“Study of slowly evolving ‘living fossils’ reveals key genetic insights.” by Mike Cummings. 2024.
“A New Discovery Reveals Why Darwin’s ‘Living Fossil’ Keeps Defying Evolution.” by Tim Newcomb. 2024.
“Giraffe Evolution.” by Adam Atwood. 2024.

Asteroid vs Birds

“An Asteroid Wiped Out Dinosaurs. Did It Help Birds Flourish?” by Carl Zimmer. 2024.
“Dust Might Have Snuffed Out the Dinosaurs.” by Miriam Fauzia. 2023.
“How Did Birds First Take Off?” by Carl Zimmer. 2023.
“Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous.” by Shaoyuan Wu, et al. 2024.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:09.0	Time flies when you learn the super cool stuff.
0:11.0	I'm Nate.
0:12.0	And I'm Callie. If you're dropping it for the first time
0:13.7	welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind.
0:17.6	If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about a new study
0:21.0	shedding light on what species are most vulnerable to extinction from climate change,
0:26.2	why species of living fossils take their time evolving,
0:30.0	and a new theory about how the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also impacted birds.
0:35.4	Let's jump into it.
0:37.0	We celebrated Earth Day earlier this week, so it seems fitting that we're talking about
0:41.2	the mass extinction event we're likely facing.
0:43.7	I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom, but it is important to look reality in the face so we can try
0:49.5	and have some positive impact.
0:51.2	Uh-huh, yeah, you got me nervous now. Well, stick with me on this one. By some
0:56.3	estimates, nearly three quarters of all life on the planet is at risk of going
1:00.6	extinct. But here's the thing, this isn't the first mass extinction
1:04.6	event. Yeah, I mean we obviously don't see all that many dinosaurs walking
1:08.7	around these days. Exactly, so a mass extinction event is typically described as a period of time when
1:15.2	Dramatically more species go extinct than would usually go extinct by some measures
1:21.0	That would mean 75% of species over the course of a couple million years.
1:26.4	And this one is happening faster in that though, right? Those three quarters of all life on the planet
	...

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